Figures recently released by Tourism Industry Aotearoa show that New Zealand was just 61 visitors away from reaching 3.5 million foreign visitors. This is an increase of 368,000 visitors from 2015, the biggest ever increase of international visitors in a single year.
“Around half the growth is coming from New Zealand’s biggest three visitor markets – Australia, China and the USA. But all source markets are growing, which provides resilience to any market shocks,” said Chris Roberts, Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive.
The report also showed significant growth from Asian markets such as South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. Air New Zealand’s direct Auckland – Buenos Aires flight is also paying dividends, with Argentinean visitor numbers having tripled from 2015.
These figures show that the tourism industry is well on the way to achieving their goal of growing tourism revenue to $41 billion by 2025.
